A Letter From Peace Troubadour James Twyman

The inspiration to focus a major worldwide synchronized meditation for Syria hit me like a bolt of lightning. I was driving near my home in Portland, Oregon, and when the inspiration hit, the jolt of energy nearly forced me to lose control of my car – literally.

You need to understand what led up to that moment to understand just how momentous it was.

Ten years earlier, almost to the day, my former wife Linda was murdered in Evanston, Illinois, just weeks before joining me and our daughter Angela in Oregon. It was the kind of emotional blow you wonder if you’ll ever recover from, and in many ways you never do. I had already focused many worldwide meditations from places like Bosnia, Iraq, Northern Ireland and South Africa, often while wars raged in those countries, but now everything was different. Though I felt protected on all of these peace missions, I always knew Linda would be there for our daughter is anything happened to me. Suddenly that wasn’t true. Weeks after her mother’s death, Angela asked me to stop traveling to such dangerous countries, and of course I agreed.

I hadn’t been to a country at war since Linda was killed, so when I felt the sudden overwhelming urge to travel to Syria and perform the Muslim, Jewish and Christian Peace Prayers within sight of an ISIS held village, it struck me as impossible. I had made a promise and I had to keep it, especially now that Angela made me a grandfather eight months earlier.

I wrestled with the inspiration for days, wondering if I should force it to the back of my mind or actually follow the direction it led, regardless of the cost. The harder I pushed the more determined the voice became. “This is what you were born to do, and it’s time to get back to work.” I spoke to Angela later that day and explained what I was feeling, and she immediately understood. I’m not saying she was in favor of the journey, but she knew how important it was for me to follow the path of The Peace Troubadour.

My original plan was to enter Syria through Turkey. The Kurdish region was the safest path for me if I wanted to get close to ISIS. Being allies of the US, I was relatively confident that I would be out of harm’s way, but there were no guarantees. That was about the time the story of my journey broke in the media. I was receiving interview requests every day from newspapers, television networks and even Fox News. One day a camera crew showed up at my daughter’s house, and that was when it became very real for her. Suddenly I was the subject of profound admiration, criticism and ridicule. Even Bill Maher took shots at me.

Suddenly everyone was talking about the power of prayer and meditation, especially when millions of people are focused on a single world crisis. Scientific studies had already proven that focused, affirmative prayer had the ability to shift crime rates, terrorist attacks and even wars. I had seen it many times before. In 1998 I was invited by Saddam Hussein to perform The Peace Concert in Iraq at the same time the US and its allies were preparing to resume military action against the government, and while millions of people focused their energy on a peaceful solution, an agreement was signed against all odds. It happened many times after that, and I soon realized that synchronized meditation and prayer are not only powerful, but perhaps the most powerful force on the planet.

The date of February 1st was chosen for the Syrian and ISIS meditation because it coincided with the United Nations Religious Harmony Week. Millions of people were already on board to join in meditation on that day, and we could feel the energy, and the pressure, building. I had received dozens of death threats, hundreds of violent emails, and several calls from the State Department. In fact, on nearly every flight I boarded or exited, I was greeted by very official looking federal officers who were more than curious about my journey. It felt like I was under a microscope, and considering the journey was less about me and more about the millions of people who were about to join me in prayer, I was happy to finally arrive in Israel.

Plans were shifting nearly every day. When I heard that a group of religious leaders from The Abrahamic Reunion, an organization run out of Jerusalem, was interested in joining me, we decided that instead of going directly into Syria, we would meet in a Syrian village controlled by Israel in the disputed Golan Heights. From there we would be able to literally look upon the battlefield while remaining beyond the range of terrorist weapons. I was joined by nine very brave people from around the world, all of whom where as committed to this vision as I was. Early in the morning on Monday, February 1 the group of pilgrims and religious leaders boarded the bus and we headed toward the Golan Heights.

The village of Majdal Shams is a Syrian village. During the 1967 war between Israel and other Arab countries, Israel captured and controlled the area, though it retained its ties to Syria. It was the perfect place for us to gather, on a hill overlooking an area under constant military threat. We arrived to the news that a battle had been raging all day, but had suddenly stopped before we arrived. We set up the peace pole that had been donated by the World Peace Prayer Society and gathered for the meditation. After the Jewish, Muslim and Christian leaders shared prayers and chants, the fifteen minutes of silence began. We knew that there were millions of people from around the world joining us, and it felt almost as if it was raining prayers of peace. The silence was overwhelming. I looked around at the one hundred or more that were gathered there and was filled with such a feeling of love. I could also feel Linda there with us, as if she was smiling on the whole journey. I knew that the inspiration I said YES to was bigger than anything I could understand with my mind, and yet my soul fully understood.

I was watching my phone and the instant the clock struck fifteen minutes something incredible happened. We had been told that there were several packs of wolves in the area, and when I heard the first howl it filled me with an energy I can’t explain. Then a second joined the first, and within seconds the entire pack, which couldn’t have been more than a few hundred feet away from us, lifted like a choir of cleansing light. It was as if they were witnessing a momentous and important moment in history – the moment we realized our collective power to create the world we have always envisioned. Millions of people were with us, and though we were the only ones who could hear the choir of wolves, we knew they were meant for all of humanity.

Ten days later in Munich, Germany, diplomats from the United States, Russia and other countries signed an agreement to cease the violence and allow humanitarian aid to flow to the starving people of Syria. Though the agreement is already being challenged, at least now we know that there is a solution that has nothing to do with governments or armies, but an Army of Light that is poised to assert the Power of Love. The moment has finally come for us to reclaim our Divine Inheritance.